It's been some time since I posted on line, and the last week and a half have been busy.
Not much creating art but lots of viewing. Spring break is ending and I spent it with my "other hat" on. working for a vacationing friend at his office; not much studio time.
Last Saturday a my artist pal Ruth called and asked if I wanted to go to Salem with her to fetch her daughter home for the break. The university has an exhibit of Harry Widman at their museum Hallie-Ford, that I wanted to see and it was great. Powerful abstracted statements of universal ideas, with wonderful color and mark making. We also ran into a mutual artist friend Linda, while checking out Ruth's gallery. I then dragged Linda and her artist friend to see the Salem Mayors Showcase at the Oregon Convention Center, ( and admire the painting I have in the show.)

Reflections on Endings 36x36
A fine time was had by all.

Today Susan (another artist) and I went to Hood River for a conference where Alyson Stanfield was the keynote speaker. She is an excellent speaker and resource for artists about marketing and business. It was a good way to end a long week of early risings.

When I got back home and checked in on the web I stumbled in to this blog by the artist Roz talking about Scarcity, great insights that that resonated with several of today's conversations.

Enjoy the links and let me know what you think.
Bruce

It's been almost a week since the last post. I have been doing some painting and too much editing and uploading to enter future art shows/fairs. My tolerance for being online or working on the computer is limited, its much easier to be a voyeur than to write and upload content. Tuesday was my monthly critique meeting and the art was amazing, I am so blessed to be a part of such a strong group.
Today I saw the Portland Art Museum show La volupté du goût: French Painting in the Age of Madame de Pompadour:
Very educational but not my style of painting.
Before I left to the show I changed finished this piece:
CBlues 10x10

This week I edited this painting per some critique suggestions:

Reds Beneath 18x18

This fell of the brush on Friday:
Red Origins 16x16

If you are interested in any of these paintings just email me for more information.
Thank you for looking and let me know what you think.
Bruce

I had a very visual weekend this week. I met an artist mentor for coffee on Saturday morning and got more good advice. In the afternoon I met another artist friend to view several of the new shows up in Portland. We both enjoyed Katayma Framing and the Murdoch collection of Oregon artists. We also went to our usual galleries, Attic, Augen,Broderick, and Laura Russo. We'll hit the Pearl area another day. Before leaving downtown I stopped in at the Contemporary Crafts Museum to see 4 fellow artists from the Portland Open Studios demonstrating their art.
On Sunday afternoon I went into Portland again and saw the documentary Our City Dreams
at the Hollywood Cinema. Its a great film about 5 women and their art. It spans generations of art making from the 60's to the present, well worth seeing for the history and the artist's insights. I finished the day by going to Carol Shaerer's opening at the Iorio Resaurant, a good show and fine time.
I did have time to work on a painting that was bugging me and this how I left it Sunday night.
Squares v2

This is where the painting is now,it was just too much about the squares and I was following the design of a very tight abstract that seemed interesting when I started, but the things I liked the most were the edge incidents. The rest was boring me and I enjoy the mark of the brush in a painting.

Squares v3 36x36

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.
Bruce

I love the fact that the days are getting longer, the increased light seems to brighten my mood. That's good thing since this is the time of year for entering art fairs and shows and learning who well the work is going over with jurors.I'm winning some and loosing some with more entries to finalize in the next weeks. I've been struggling with the what and direction of the abstracts this past month. I took a detour and finished what I call a bottlescape which incorporates a view of a village in Italy's Cinque Terra . It is 16x16 and is going into a local school auction.
Cinque Terra II


Here is a larger abstract piece that is possibly close to finished.
Red Squares 36x36



Thanks for looking and feel free to let me know what your think.
Bruce

Where did last week and February go? There are several more variations to the series of abstracts previewed in the last post. here is one more of the Pink jewels:

Pink a 8x8 mixed acrylic painting.

Last week a lot of time was spent entering Art fair shows that will happen through out this summer. Plus I am pleased to say that I was selected for the Saratoga Rotary show which will be May 3 in California, this is an event which began in the 60's. I also am selected be in the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts in late June. It will be fun because my friend Lynn Adamo is organizing the special art forum and show this year which is mosaic works. There are several more applications pending and my fingers and toes are crossed.

Beneath, the final version
The root forms were painted to be mainly in the red family, and the sky was lightened.
Thank you for looking and feel free to leave a comment.
Bruce